Gordon Fitch wrote:
>Let us assume that Palestinians are as smart as we are. Then
>that must be the desired effect.
-Suicide bombers could think that they're going to wear -down their enemies, who will eventually give up.
For those Palestinians who want peace, suicide bombings may be counterproductive -- although as Robert Wright notes in Slate (which has been pretty good as Israel recently), being able to promote terrorism is a bargaining chip in that they have the ability to turn it off.
But for those Palestinians who want to destroy Israel altogether, the encouragement of extremism by the Israelis is the goal. They need to inspire acts of retaliation by Israel that continue to discredit Israel internationally to the point where it will alienate so many people internationally that the US can no longer afford to protect it. That point may not be reached, but the logic of suicide bombings goal is the empowerment of the most rightwing elements in Israel-- it is the "worse the better" in the extreme form.
Hamas and Likud have fed on each other symbiotically since the assassination of Rabin. This is just the continuation of that which, if outside intervention does not impose a peace, will lead to mass killings and genocide. At one level, peace becomes more possible because the alternative is so unspeakable-- but the latter has not been barred in history.
-- Nathan Newman